To be just a tiny bit bothered by what I saw at my son's nursery this morning?

[KingofnightvisionKingofinsight]

My 3-year-old DS just started at a new nursery. The teachers are lovely and kind and DS seems happy, and obviously that's most important. But anyway...

This morning at dropoff DS wanted me to stay for a few minutes so I did. I watched him sit down at a craft table set with lovely materials including glue, glitter, scraps of fabric and cotton wool, and small yellow paper circles. My DS spent several minutes carefully applying dumping half a bottle of glue to a good portion of his paper, and then he asked the teacher to pass him some glitter. She very sweetly encouraged him to put more glue on other parts of the paper first, which he did, and then she gave him the glitter. A minute later she gave him a yellow circle. He started to glue it at the bottom of the paper, but she gently corrected him, saying that the sun belongs at the top. She then pointed to a sample project that had been made. It was a picture of the beach, with an ocean of blue fabric scraps and glitter, cotton clouds, and in the top right corner a yellow paper sun. My DS dutifully copied the sample picture and proudly showed me his beach.

AIBU to be a little sad that the nursery is giving the kids the idea of what to make and even showing them something to copy? Why can't they just put out the materials and let them create? I'm wondering if this is always the nursery's approach to art or if it's just this particular teacher. She is otherwise lovely so it's not like I would dislike her for this, but if this always how art and creativity are managed at the school it does give me a bit of pause. If it is I would still be happy with the school but I think I would like to engage them a bit (in a friendly, non-demanding way) about their reasons and figure out how it impacts other areas of the curriculum.

AIBU?

I work in early years.

Early years provision includes child-led activities, where the child is free to choose (within reason!) and adult-led activities, like the one you describe.

If you talk to the nursery staff they will explain this to you, although I suspect that this has already been explained to parents, either at a meeting, on their website or in a leaflet/booklet.

It's for their school reports. There need to be "teacher led activities". That's what this one was.

Tomorrow, he'll pour the glue down his pants and eat the glitter and they'll write it up as "child led activity".

I don't think you're being unreasonable. You would be if you were planning to go in all guns blazing and rant about your special snowflake and his artistic freedom... but you're not. You were just a little sad that he couldn't do his own 3-year-old thing.

Students at art school don't have to justify why they've used x,y or z as the inspiration for their work though. Bonus points for originality all the way and whether something inventive/skilful has been produced.

They started out as pre-schoolers so of course it's a good comparison!

It doesn't really matter what the adult thinks about the child's artwork anyway. They're not obliged to make pretty things to decorate the family home.

Although I agree that it's not ideal, I wouldn't worry about it. Just give him plenty of time with artsy stuff at home to do his own thing.

I used to work in a library. One of the things I liked about it was that it could be a place where the children could make their own choices - both about books and in relation to any activities in a craft session. In the latter there's often be a theme and some kind of copied outline drawing, but after that the children would have free range.

It struck me that the children often really loved that small freedom - even if it was just about when to use glitter and when to use crayon and when to put on bits of sticky paper -- because everything in their life was so bloody directed. Sometimes I'd be facilitating a session and the parents would try and take over. 'No, not the green crayon for a face. Here's a pink one.' And I'd say to the child 'Oh I think faces can be green. What a great idea.'

Copying the picture could be developing alternative skills, eg glueing in a certain shape (sun), recognising and selecting the appropriate colours, following instructions etc. YANBU, you are just misunderstanding.

Really??? I mean really,really??!! Think you need to withdraw your child immediately 😆. They sometimes need to be shown examples to inspire their imagination. He might do a seaside picture that is similar but might add a shark etc,etc.

I'm with you OP. This would bother me slightly, but I wouldn't say anything.

Well said Plurabelle. Children's lives are extremely directed/structured. Time to get out of the home. Time to go to nursery. Time to stop for a drink. Time to stop what you're doing and tidy up. Time to go home. Then it's time to do your homework/hurry to swimming lessons. Time to get in the bath. I'm sure little children didn't used to have all this. They're so little.

my dd has always been at nurseries that follow the child-led mantra, and in practice this just seems to mean an absence of anything - i've never seen her produce a decent picture, just paint splatted onto paper. I would love your nursery - I wish they would at least show them the conventional beach scene etc (especially at 3!) so they can deconstruct/play with it, at least as a starting point. My DD is 6 now and has yet to reveal that she's a creative genius from all this unstructured play, let's hope that happens!

What's wrong with "paint splatted on to paper"?

Why does it have to be a "decent picture"?

My DC just finished his gcse art, for two years (and 4 teachers ) he was told that he wasn't following the 'guidelines' and should try harder..his art was 'scary' with little thought processes into his mediums. He'd had enough so did what he wanted for his final piece, a hanging priest in black ink with red splodges - he got a 'B'.

I did art in the 80s and we did what we wanted basically. And DC is now studying art for A level.
Too much emphasis is put on what's expected rather than what the artist wants to do. Even at 3!

Oh the fuck. Is this for real. (Lifts self off from under a heap of paperwork and faints again at the thought of in anagrams work life balance)

Yanbu
I'm a nursery manager and I hate this sort of thing
Our art area has loads of things go use but no end product to copy
Its the process that's important, not the end product

I don't see any benefit whatsoever in that activity
Surely adult led activities should be teaching something?
Recreating somebody else's creative work is not in the least bit educational

Being free to create your own masterpiece on the other hand, is.

surely you can understand that a balance between child-led and adult-led is desirable, even in art? At 6, dd has never been shown how to draw anything at nursery or school. I don't mind some messy play or paint splatted onto paper as part of a varied basket of activities. It often seems to me that child-led means lazy - chuck out paper and pens and there you go, child-led. I don't think it's particularly valuable to do this continually from the ages of 2-5, but if she does turn into the next Lucian Freud I'll let you know!

A child painted this at my nursery the other day. I ripped it up as she was supposed to be painting a flower.

(I then taped it together to show Mumsnet what a crap flower it was of course.)

Child led is not the lazy option in my nursery munch
Just the opposite, it actually takes a lot of skill and knowledge to do it right. To make sure children are learning and developing at the right rate
To me, doing adult directed art is the lazy option

OP, this story is up on the wall of the staff area in our nursery: A lesson creativity in children.

Guided discovery??

Tiggy
:)

Noooooo, definitely not the easy option! It is very hard as adults to stand back and not interfere. It's also harder to set up a meaningful art activity than to just get them to copy!

Yanbu. At that age they should be allowed to create what they like.